John MacDonald: Do heavy court workloads justify crims getting off lightly?

Sir Ron Young, who used to be a high court judge and used to be chair of the Parole Board, thinks shorter sentences could take the strain off the justice system.   He says shorter sentences make people less likely to re-offend because they don’t spend as much time with other offenders and that would mean less people going through the courts. There are two ways we could respond to that. We could think about it with a long-term, logical view and let our head guide our thinking, or we could let our heart guide our response. Sir Ron is saying this today after the release of Chief Justice Dame Helen Winkelmann’s annual report, which says the justice system is under considerable pressure because of under-funding, security issues, delays, and heavy workloads.  Which probably won’t be much of a surprise to anyone who has had dealings with our courts. But what do we do about it? Sir Ron thinks shorter sentences are the answer. He’s saying today that offenders who get shorter sentences and go through rehabilitation are less likely to join gangs and re-offend. And, with longer sentences becoming more common, they’re making the crime problem worse because they mean people are more likely to continue committing crimes, and that’s putting more and more pressure on the justice system. I can see both sides of the argument. My head tells me that there is something in what Sir Ron is saying. But my heart tells me that it’s a terrible idea, because it doesn’t actually address the problem, which is a justice system pretty much on the edge. A justice system struggling because, as our top judge says, it doesn’t have enough resources: there aren’t enough lawyers wanting to do legal aid work, there’s been an increase in the number of murder and manslaughter trials, and they’re all taking longer.  But is dishing out lighter sentences to, apparently, reduce the pipeline of criminal offending, the answer?  I say it isn’t. Because reducing sentences just to take the pressure off the justice system doesn’t help the victims of crime in the here and now. If there’s anything our struggling justice system doesn’t need, that’s a further erosion of public confidence.  Which is what would happen if we saw criminals getting off lightly, just because we’re not prepared to resource the system in a way that delivers what the system is there to deliver: justice. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.